κριθή

Forms

κρῑθή (krīthḗ) f (genitive κρῑθῆς); first declension^[1] Epic κρῖ (krî), a neuter used only in the nominative and accusative.^[2][3] Mycenaean Greek ki-ri-ta (Knossos G 820) may be this word, read as kritā.^[4]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[2][1] The form with the suffix points to an older root noun with a long /iː/, which survives in the Epic neuter κρῖ (krî).^[2][3]

The traditional comparison is with the western words for barley, Latin hordeum and Old High German gersta, but Frisk shows that their supposed Indo-European bases, Proto-Indo-European *gʰr̥zdʰ- and *gʰerzd-, would have given quite different Greek forms.^[2][1] Pokorny nonetheless derives the Greek word from the first of these.^[5] The Greek word agrees better with Albanian drithë (“barley, grain”) and Old Armenian գարի (gari, “barley”), which formally points to *gʰr̥yo-.^[2][1][6] Frisk therefore doubts that it comes straight from an Indo-European word and suggests a migratory word, and he mentions the view that it is of Aegean origin.^[2] Beekes, not convinced by any proposal, also thinks of an old migratory word.^[1][3]

The Etymologicum Magnum derived it from προκρίνω (prokrínō, “to prefer”), because barley was preferred to the acorns people had eaten before, or from κρίνω (krī́nō, “to separate”), because the wind separates it from the chaff.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Homer uses it only in the plural, for barley or barley-corns, beside wheat (Iliad 11.69, Odyssey 9.110).^[8][9][10]

Semantic evolution

In classical Greek the plural remained the usual form for barley, while the meal made from it was ἄλφιτα (álphita).^[8][10] Herodotus calls a kind of beer “wine made from barley”, and Aeschylus speaks of a drink brewed from it.^[8] Theophrastus distinguishes species of barley, calls a millet “Indian barley”, and uses the barley-corn as the smallest weight.^[8] By resemblance to the grain, Hippocratic and later medical writers used it for a stye on the eyelid, and Aristophanes used it as slang for the penis.^[8][2][11]

The singular is found in a papyrus of the 2nd century BC, in the Septuagint and in later writers.^[8][10] The Septuagint uses it 35 times for barley.^[12] In the New Testament barley was the grain of cheap bread, thought less desirable than wheat.^[10][13]

The diminutive κριθάριον (krithárion) appears in the papyri.^[2] The everyday Modern Greek word for barley is κριθάρι (krithári), while κριθή lives on as a learned word in botany and in medicine, where it names an inflammation of the glands of the eyelid.^[6][14][15]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use the plural for barley.^[8][9]
• 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus speaks of a drink brewed from barley.^[8][16]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus calls a beer “wine made from barley”, and Hippocratic writers use the word for a stye.^[8][16]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses it as slang for the penis.^[8][11][16]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Theophrastus uses it for kinds of barley, for a millet and for the smallest weight.^[8][16]
• 2nd century BC – A papyrus has the singular for barley.^[8]
• Modern Greek – It survives as a learned word in botany and medicine, beside the everyday κριθάρι (krithári).^[14][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. (usually plural) Barley, barley-corns; with “Indian”, a kind of millet.^[8][9][10]
2. (medicine) A stye, a pustule on the eyelid.^[8][2]
3. A barleycorn, the smallest unit of weight.^[8]
4. (slang) The penis.^[8][11]

Word family

• ἄκριθος (ákrīthos)
• κρίθινος (krī́thinos)
• κριθίδιον (krithídion)
• κριθάριον (krithárion)
• κριθιάω (krithiáō)

Related words

• κρῖ (krî)
• English crith

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
3. ^ a b c Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ Микенско-русский словарь (Mycenaean–Russian dictionary)
5. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
6. ^ a b c Βικιλεξικό, the Greek Wiktionary, https://el.wiktionary.org
7. ^ Gaisford, Thomas, ed. (1848), Etymologicum Magnum, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c Autenrieth, Georg (1891), A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, tr. Robert P. Keep, New York: Harper and Brothers
10. ^ a b c d e Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
11. ^ a b c Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
12. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
13. ^ United Bible Societies (2023), UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament (revised Louw–Nida semantic domains), open-licence ed.
14. ^ a b Ακαδημία Αθηνών (2014), Χρηστικό Λεξικό της Νεοελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Academy of Athens
15. ^ Τεγόπουλος, Γ.; Φυτράκης, Ε. (1997), Μείζον Ελληνικό Λεξικό, Athens: Αρμονία
16. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge